Ten years ago, when Lucien Bouchard was Canada’s Environment Minister, he announced that by the year 2000 Canada would be “the industrialized world’s most environmentally friendly country”.3 At the same time, noted Canadian scientist David Suzuki warned that:

“More than any other time in history, the 1990s will be a turning point for human civilization. Not only are we facing ecological disasters that could affect our ability to survive, but the crisis is forcing us to reexamine the value system that has governed our lives for at least the last 2000 years.” 4

Today, Canada’s environmental track record continues to be the subject of heated public debate and wildly divergent opinions. Is it true, as the Fraser Institute claims, that “Canadians can be proud of all we have accomplished to reduce pollution and protect our environment”?5 Or is it true, as the Globe and Mail recently claimed, that Canada is an “environmental bad boy”?6

In light of the divided discourse, it is difficult to find a reliable independent assessment of the current state of environmental protection in Canada. Critical questions are going unanswered. How do we compare to other industrialized nations? Are we making progress towards a sustainable future or are we moving backwards? Reports from government, environmental groups, the media and rightwing organizations like the Fraser Institute tend to obfuscate, exaggerate, or omit information that does not further their objectives.7

The goal of this study is to provide accurate, independent information about Canada’s environmental track record. The study compares Canada’s current environmental performance with the other 28 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Twenty-five environmental indicators in ten categories – air, water, energy, biodiversity, waste, climate change, ozone depletion, agriculture, transportation and miscellaneous – are examined. The study also looks at the change in Canada’s environmental performance over a span of two decades, from 1980 to 1999, to give an indication of our progress, or lack thereof, towards sustainability. Canada’s progress over the past two decades is also compared with the rest of the OECD.

The OECD has twenty-nine members including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

The twenty-five environmental indicators selected for this study were chosen to represent the major areas of environmental concern. Where appropriate, information is presented in per capita terms as well as overall environmental performance. Otherwise, the single factor of population would overwhelm all other factors (meaning that the United States, with the largest population among OECD nations, would almost invariably be at the bottom of every category).

Sources of Information

Most of the statistical data in this study comes from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Environmental Data Compendium, 1999. The OECD publishes this compendium of environmental statistics every two years for the purpose of providing “the best internationally available data on the environment and related areas.”8 Although the OECD relies largely on information provided by member governments, it ensures quality by verifying this information before it is published.

The OECD’s Environmental Data Compendium simply provides the data, without any ranking of nations or other commentary. As the Environmental Data Compendium states:

No attempt has been made to suggest interpretations in presenting the data. This is a deliberate choice. The data take on their full meaning only when interpreted by readers familiar with the subject.9

“Canada vs. The OECD: An Environmental Comparison” takes the data provided by the OECD and ranks the twenty-nine nations according to their environmental performance. Throughout the report the rankings have been compiled so that the country with the best performance on a given indicator from an environmental perspective is ranked 1st. Larger numbers reflect poorer performance, with 29th being the worst ranking possible in the 29 nation OECD.